2012 F1 testing

Kimi Raikkonen put Lotus on top for the third time in four days as the final pre-season test drew to a close.

Raikkonen’s lap of 1’22.030, set on soft tyres shortly before the lunch break, was the quickest seen in either of the two tests at the Circuit de Catalunya this year.

The lotus driver was two-tenths of a second quicker than Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari. Alonso used super-softs for his lap.

Bruno Senna was fractionally slower, setting a best time of 1’22.296 on soft tyres. Once again he shared his day’s running in the Williams with team mate Pastor Maldonado.

The times remained close between the leading drivers with the fastest eight covered by nine-tenths of a second. Kamui Kobayashi, fifth-fastest, caused the first of two red flags when his Sauber came to a stop early in the afternoon with an engine problem.

The second was caused by Vitaly Petrov in the Caterham, who set the seventh-fastest time of the day.

World champion Sebastian Vettel was at the bottom of the times as Red Bull continued work on their pre-Melbourne upgrade. The car was frequently obscured by covers and umbrellas at it made its way in and out of the pits during the day’s running.

I don’t have that impression at all…after all, if they haven’t nailed their car, and if throughout the whole season they can’t improve, which I think is highly unlikely, Ferrari will live to fight another day…it is not like anyone is going to be given a death sentence at Ferrari if they can’t immediately trounce Red Bull. The worst thing that is going to happen is they will have issues to address. Only one team gets to win the WCC and the WDC…all others will be doing the same thing Ferrari has to do…work it…improve it…do their best…understand F1 carries no guarantees, same as life…and they will live to fight another day.